Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Oregon standoff trial: Monday's highlights, what's next

...Also Monday, prosecutors showed jurors video taken during the
occupation. In one, Ammon Bundy speaks from the refuge on Jan. 4. "We
feel we have exhausted all prudent measures and have been ignored,'' he
says in the footage. He tells reporters he spent the previous two months
trying to get the attention of state and county officials to the plight
of Harney County ranchers Dwight Hammond Jr. and Steve Hammond.

In a video independent broadcaster Pete Santilli filmed the next
night of co-defendant Jon Ritzheimer, dressed in full combat fatigues
and holding a rifle, at the refuge entrance. Ritzheimer says, "We got
word they're coming out here,'' referring to law enforcement.

Federal prosecutors also played a video from co-defendant Jason
Patrick's camera of a meeting led by co-defendant Ryan Payne in the
refuge bunkhouse Jan. 7. During the meeting, Payne relayed the message
from Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward that the sheriff had offered to
escort them out of the county and state. "He should be telling the feds
to get the hell out of this county,'' Payne told the crowd of about 25
people assembled.

Refuge archeologist Carla Burnside testified about finding the door
to her locked office opened, and documents missing from her file
cabinet. She said someone used her PIN to log onto three refuge
computers on Jan. 2. She said no Native American artifacts were damaged,
and refuted occupiers' claims that they were infested by rat feces and
cobwebs.

Defendant Neil Wampler, on Monday, wore a light blue jail scrub
shirt over his plaid shirt in the courtroom. He said he found the shirt
at a thrift shop and wore it "in solidarity with Ammon.'' A man
attending the trial, seated in the public gallery, wore an identical
blue jail scrub shirt.

Ammon Bundy chose on the second day of testimony in the trial to
wear his jail scrubs in order to look like "the political prisoner'' he
said he is, refusing to dress in a suit and dress shirt.

Coming Tuesday:

Prosecutors said they plan to call two more employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to testify Tuesday.

They also plan to call as witnesses Harney County Sheriff's deputy
Lucas McLain, Deschutes County Sheriff's deputy Ron Brown, two state
police troopers and two FBI agents...more